Inkjet recording is a typical non-impact recording method to produce images by letting ink drops fly onto a medium in response to digital signals, which is a method by forming ink drops by means of mechanical or thermal action and producing images on an image-recording element such as paper by using the ink drops.
The inkjet recording does not involve a process such as development or fixing needed in recording methods such as electrophotography and thus permits easy device downscaling as well as high-speed and low-noise recording.
Owing to relative inexpensiveness of recording devices and easiness of colorization, this recording method has been widely used in recent years with output devices for office machines and for consumer-oriented personal computers.
With this being the situation, it is most desired for this recording method to be able to print at a high speed and stably images having high quality comparable to that of electrophotographs.
Printing at a high speed and stably needs accelerating ink drying on a medium. A method of accelerating drying by using a combination of alcoholic amine and fat dye is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. Sho 61(1986)-33870. However, this method has a problem in print quality.
On the other hand, in high quality image printing, a method by simultaneous performance of heating and printing to ensure high quality images is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Hei 11(1999)-129460. However, in high speed printing by this method, there will be unevenness in propagation of heat, resulting in a failure to keep high quality. Furthermore, in such a case, power consumption might potentially increase.
Also, there have currently been few discussions concerning the use of a pigment as a coloring material.